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Tip

If you want to use a slow cooker

Brown your shanks in a frying pan with the oil for a couple of minutes then place in the slow cooker with all the other ingredients except coriander. Cover and cook on Low for 9-10 hours. Take out the lamb then finish off the sauce in a pan on the hob according to step 4, above.

Tip

Start with spinach houmous

Very gently fry ¼ tsp ground cumin and
1 crushed garlic clove in 1 tbsp olive
oil for 2 mins, before tipping in 100g bag
baby spinach. Cook until just wilted.
Squeeze out all the excess liquid, then
blitz with 6 tbsp ready-made houmous
and a squeeze of lemon juice. Serve
with toasted pitta and carrot sticks.

Method

Heat oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Add
1 tbsp oil to a small, tight-lidded casserole
and brown shanks for a couple of mins,
turning as you go. Remove and set aside.

Add remaining oil and onions to the pan
and cook for about 10 mins until soft. Add
garlic and spices and cook for 4 mins more.
Tip in tomatoes and stock, then nestle
the shanks back in on their sides. Bring
to a boil, cover and put in the oven. Cook
for 2 hrs: turn the shanks now and then.

Remove the lid and stir through the
molasses, apricots and figs. Cook,
uncovered, for 30 mins more or until the
meat is falling away from the bone.

Remove shanks from the dish and wrap
in foil to keep warm. Put the dish back
onto the heat and cook down the juices
until thick and saucy. Season, then serve
the shanks, scattered with coriander,
alongside the rice (see 'Goes well with', right).

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Comments, questions and tips

Comments

Made this is my slow cooker and ended with lamb shanks swimming in tomato soup! I had to empty the sauce in a saucepan, blend it a hand blender and boiled on a high heat for a good 45 minutes without a lid on to reduce to a sauce consistency. I agree with other reviewers that the tomato overpowered everything, so I added more spices to the sauce and a tablespoon of redcurrant jelly to make it sweeter. After this, the dish was absolutely DIVINE and restaurant quality. Everyone loved it, including a picky fussy 6 year old.
So, next time I won't bother browning the lamb shanks, I will add either 2 tbsps. of tomato puree and 150ml of chicken stock OR 1/2 tin of chopped tomatoes and no stock. Also, you don't need all that oil, the lamb shanks are fatty enough, just add 1 teaspoon of oil for the sauce. I will also add some redcurrant jelly or a tbsp of sugar and more cumin, more coriander, and more apricots (because everyone loved them, they swelled up in the sauce and were divine). Fish out the apricots after the lamb is cooked and blend everything together with a hand blender.

I didn't like this at all. I made it in the slow cooker and the lamb was very tender but the tin of tomatos overpowered everything and i didn't like the taste. This recipe was an expensive mistake for me.

I bought one large lamb shoulder and followed the recipie apart from cooking it for four hours and using tinned chickpeas. It turned out beautifully tender and sticky and sweet. Next time I will leave out the carrots as (although they tasted amazing) they didn't work with the dish. Also make sure you add a generous amount of chilli as with the sweetness you need a kick of heat. As it was shoulder I cooked it for longer and baisted it occasionally. Really great dish in general as you can leave it until you are ready and a lot of the prep work too.

I'm looking to make this is a couple of days but like a few people have found, pomegranate molasses isn't the kind of thing you'd find in your local supermarket so I've found a recipe and made some myself to use. Try 1L pomegranate juice (I've used 250ml concentrate topped up with water), 4 oz sugar and 125ml lemon juice. Heat together on a medium/high heat until sugar has dissolved then simmer for about 1 1/4 hrs until you have approx 200/250ml syrupy liquid. Pour into a jar and cool. A bit of a chore but probably easier than searching the world for the real thing. Hope this helps :-)

Really nice was of doing lambshanks. This is an awful lot of food for two though, it would easily do three if you stripped the meat off the bones. I didn't have any figs so just doubled the apricots and it was fine. I also added some tomato puree to enrichen it a bit.

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